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For more information regarding the Optimal Care Pathways, or to send feedback, please email ocps@canceraustralia.gov.au
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This webpage was last updated in September 2025.
The Optimal Care Pathways (OCPs) are a framework for the delivery of consistent, safe, high-quality, and evidence-based care for people with cancer. They have Australia-wide acceptance and government support, and are being implemented nationally.
Covering every step from prevention and early detection through to recovery, living with a chronic disease, or end-of-life care, they aim to improve patient outcomes by promoting quality cancer care and ensuring that all people diagnosed with cancer receive the best care, irrespective of where they live or receive cancer treatment.
The OCPs can guide, support and inform increased collaboration, more effective care, improved healthcare provider–patient communication and patient experience.
An interactive web app supported by the Victorian Government allows you to access the OCPs on your mobile or desktop.
Open the OCP Web App
The Optimal Care Pathways are endorsed by Cancer Australia, the former National Cancer Expert Reference Group and all states and territories. Those developed by the Leukaemia Foundation were endorsed by the Health Chief Executives Forum.
Guides to Best Cancer Care
These short guides are a summary version of the Optimal Care Pathways. They help patients, carers and families understand the optimal cancer care that should be provided from diagnosis, through to treatment and beyond.
They include:
- optimal timeframes within which tests or procedures should be completed
- prompt lists to support patients to understand what might happen at each step of their cancer experience and to consider what questions to ask, and
- information to help patients and carers communicate with health professionals.
View the guides